| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Bomb kills DSP, suicide bomber kills over 38 at funeral |
| 2008-03-01 |
| At least 38 people were killed and 50 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday during the funeral of a DSP who was killed earlier in the day. According to AFP, nearly 1,000 people were attending the funeral in Swat’s Mingora town. Reuters quoted the number as 500, adding that most of the casualties were policemen. The policeman being buried was one of four killed earlier in the day when their van struck a roadside bomb in Lakki Marwat. Police officer Noor Aslam said Lakki DSP Javed Iqbal’s vehicle was targeted when he was travelling to his office. The blast killed Iqbal, a guard and his driver instantly. Another two guards were hospitalised but one of them died later in the day. More than 50: Muhammad Khan, a doctor at a Saidu Sharif hospital, said 34 bodies had been received and more than 50 people were being treated for wounds. But intelligence officials said the death toll was at least 38. “People coming from the blast site say that human limbs were scattered on blood-soaked ground,” said hospital official Khaleeq Khan. More deaths: “Three police officials and a son and a cousin of the martyred police official were also killed,” said a senior security official. Mingora SHO Habib Zaman and the Malookabad Union Council Nazim Habiullah also died in the blast. NNI reported that area residents started evacuating following the blast. Condemnation: President Pervez Musharraf “strongly condemned” the attack, saying it would not “dent the government’s resolve to fight terrorism and extremism”. While no group has claimed responsibility for the blast, authorities suspect local militants are responsible. |
| Posted by:Fred |